


Rescue

by htbthomas



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Rescue, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 19:32:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1359253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/htbthomas/pseuds/htbthomas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity’s voice buzzes in his ear. “He’s within 20 feet of you, Roy. Do you see him?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadySilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySilver/gifts).



> Thanks to blithers for the quick lookover. :)

Felicity’s voice buzzes in his ear. “He’s within 20 feet of you, Roy. Do you see him?”

Roy scans the corridor in front of him. “All I see is a lot of doors.” Roy clenches and unclenches his fingers, trying to control the rage bubbling below the surface. He has to find Oliver—everyone is counting on him.

“He must be behind one of them.” Felicity sounds calm, though he knows she must be frantic with worry. “Can you describe the doors? Are there locks, keypads, what?”

“Uh…” He gets close to one of them, squinting in the low light. “No keypad. There’s a handle, no place for a key.” He reaches for the handle to test it. Definitely locked. “Some sort of black panel beside the door with a red light built in. I dunno what for.”

“Maybe a swipe pass.” He hears a series of swift keystrokes through the line, Felicity typing at near superspeed. “Checking into their security system…”

Roy tries to stay alert as he waits, but it’s hard—all he wants to do is smash something apart. He could try one of Oliver’s meditation exercises, but what if someone comes around the corner? He can see it now—caught eyes closed, breathing slowly in and out, just before a bullet takes him between the eyes. He doesn’t think he would heal from that kind of wound, and he’s not looking to test it, either.

“Roy,” Felicity says suddenly. “Do all the doors look alike?”

He glances around. “Yeah. Can you narrow it down to which one?”

“Something’s blocking the tracker signal. I can’t pinpoint it any more finely than that, sorry.” He hears a synchronized click all around him, all the red lights turning green. “But I can do that.”

Roy springs into action, yanking open the first door and looking inside. It’s a supply closet, shelves too small to hide a human body. The next one is filled with filing cabinets, and no Oliver. The third is an office, small and cramped, and seriously depressing. “Why would you even lock this room? The computer’s got to be at least five years old.”

Felicity makes a sound of disgust—he can’t tell if she’s kidding or not over the comm. Then he hears an indrawn breath. “Hurry, Roy. You’re going to have company soon.”

“Can you slow them down?” he asks through gritted teeth, opening the next door. “What? A frickin’ bathroom?”

“I’m doing what I can,” she says around the sound of more furious typing. “But find him, fast.”

He simply grunts in response, pulling open the last of the doors within the tracker’s radius. It’s a laboratory, bigger than the other rooms he’s opened so far. Like a tornado, he tears apart the lab—doors off hinges, tables overturned, only taking care not to break any of the beakers full of chemicals. He has a healthy fear of those, now. “He’s not here!” he shouts, the blood starting to roar in his ears. “Was this a setup?!”

“I hope not, because then we have no idea where Oliver is.” Her voice is tenser than he’s ever heard it. “I’ve locked all the doors between them and you. I think you’re going to need to find an alternate exit.”

Roy looks around the lab, so worked up he can hardly concentrate. His heart is pounding in his chest so loudly that he swears he can feel it all the way to his boots.

Then he freezes. That’s not his heart.

Slowly, he lowers himself to a crouch. There _is_ a pounding, and it’s coming from below him..

Roy concentrates all his rage, all his worry, all his fear into the end of his fist, and pounds it straight down into the speckled-white laminate flooring.

The floor bursts apart with a crash, wood and metal rebar breaking apart. He pulls at the ragged edges, throwing hunks behind him until he can see into the darkness below. The dust settles enough to make out a shape amongst the debris.

Oliver looks up at him for a moment, nods a thanks, and then holds a gloved hand toward Roy.

“I got him,” he tells Felicity. No more words are needed. He pulls his teammate up to safety.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Returning the Favor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569260) by [peacefulboo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacefulboo/pseuds/peacefulboo)




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